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HOST VO

A summer’s day turns deadly when a toddler is attacked by a microscopic monster.

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

I thought that she was gonna die.  It was like death was there.  Like death was imminent.

HOST VO

A firefighter’s family is torn apart by a single-celled killer that lives all around us.

SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

I just knew my husband was fighting and fighting for his life.

HOST VO

And a teenager could lose her sight when a hoard of hungry worms invades her eye.

AMY KENDALL VO/OC

She said, “No, I can’t see mom.”  I just broke down and cried.

HOST VO

Three very different parasites.  One shared strategy.  They hide in plain sight.  They are waiting to strike.  They are everywhere.  They are the lurkers.

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HOST VO

Worms, invisible to the human eye.  Insects, thirsty for blood.  Microscopic amoeba.  They might look harmless, but these are some of nature’s deadliest creatures.  They can hijack our bodies, disable our immune systems.  They are parasites.  But to those infected, they are the Monsters Inside Me.

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HOST VO

Parasites are organisms that survive by living and feeding off other creatures called hosts.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

All parasites face the same challenge, they need to get to a host and reproduce.  The most cunning parasites have a brilliant strategy to do this.  They sit and wait, ready to attack at a moment’s notice.  

HOST VO

Parasites lurk everywhere.  Even in your own backyard as one Oregon family is about to find out.

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2009, Steve and Jenni Hastings live with their three year old daughter Kamber in remote Jefferson, Oregon.  

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

We live in a farming community with lots of horses and a lot of farms.

STEVE HASTINGS VO/OC

It’s a country setting and we have a, a field and a large backyard.  

HOST VO

The family keeps animals on their farm and even have their own well.

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JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

We are outside constantly.  We have a garden, we play on our play structure.  We swim in the pool and we just spend a lot of time outside.

HOST VO

On the surface their life seems idyllic, but they have no idea that a deadly intruder is lurking ready to strike.

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One night in the middle of summer, Jenni and Steve are sound asleep in bed when they are awoken by a strange noise.

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

I woke up to the sound of choking.  Kamber had crawled in bed with Steve and myself and she really violently threw up just right on him.

STEVE HASTINGS VO/OC

I knew that she was not feeling good.  I started getting a little bit worried.

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

Steve takes Kamber into the bathroom as she continued to throw up.  It just started to dawn on me that this was an incredible amount of, of throw up for such a little girl.

HOST VO

Over the next four hours, the vomiting gets steadily worse.

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

She had never been sick like this before.  I count down the hours.  At eight o’clock I’m calling the doctor’s office.

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JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

I explained that Kamber is really sick and right away the doctor tells me that it sounds like the 24 hour flu, kids her age get it all the time.  I’ve never experienced a child with stomach flu, so I didn’t think anything was abnormal.  They tell me to give her lots of fluids and continue to watch her.

HOST VO

Jenni follows doctor’s orders, but after two days in bed, Kamber’s condition has not improved.  And when Jenni goes to check on her, she’s worried by what she finds.  

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

I walked into the room and the way she was laying was exactly the same way I left her.  It was like she hadn’t even moved.

HOST VO

Concerned that Kamber might be seriously ill, Jenni rushes her daughter to the local emergency room.  But as they wait to be seen, Kamber gets even worse.  

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

The medical assistant comes in and she starts taking her vital signs.  She tells me that Kamber’s heart rate was erratic, it was off the charts for what a heart rate should be for somebody that size and age and it was due to being extremely dehydrated,.  The nurse tells me that she needed to get IV fluids immediately and that was a really scary moment.

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The fluids help Kamber’s heart beat return to normal and after three days in the hospital, the doctors decide that she is well enough to go back home.  They tell Jenni that Kamber just has a bad case of stomach flu and that she will get better on her own.  But Jenni’s not convinced.

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

I’m so frustrated that they’re actually bringing me the papers to discharge her.  I have never seen anybody as sick as this in my life.  This is not a stomach bug.  This is not the stomach flu.  But Jenni is powerless to overrule the doctor’s decision.

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HOST VO

Back home, Kamber’s vomiting returns with a vengeance and it’s not long before she has the worst bout of diarrhea Jenni and Steve have ever seen.

JENNI HASTINGS OC/VO

This was not any type of diarrhea that I’ve ever seen in my entire life.  It was literally like a, a thick bright yellow color.  

STEVE HASTINGS VO/OC

It would just go all over the bed and we kept having to change the sheets over and over and over again.

HOST VO

The next morning, Jenni calls the doctor for help.

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

The girl that takes the message says she’ll have her return the call.  That happened five times that day.  I was so frustrated.  I could not believe that they were not calling me back.

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As Jenni is trying to decide what to do next, Kamber crawls into the kitchen.

JENNI HASTINGS VO/C

At this point, I recognize, “Okay we’re about to have another episode.”  But this time, as she throws up, she has diarrhea.  It is coming out of every part of the diaper, overflowing.  She’s throwing up on me across the room and it hits the wall and it’s dripping off the wall and she’s screaming because at this point she slips in it and falls back.

HOST VO

Kamber is in desperate need of medical attention.

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

I basically picked her up and we go to the only children’s hospital that I can think of which is Emmanuel Children’s Hospital in Portland.

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HOST VO

But Portland is a two hour drive from Jefferson.

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

I was honking the horn and weaving through traffic and I was just praying that maybe an officer would pull me over and I could tell them so we could get there faster.

HOST VO

As Jenni rushes her sick daughter to the hospital, Kamber’s condition nosedives.

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

We’re about half-way there and I look up in the rearview mirror and look at Kamber and she is looking forward, but she didn’t respond to my voice.  That moment when I couldn’t get her to respond, it was like, like death was there, like death was imminent.  I thought that it was gonna happen, she was gonna die on that car ride.

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MUSIC IN

HOST VO

Three year old Kamber Hastings has been struck down by a devastating bout of vomiting and diarrhea.  Desperately worried, her mother Jenni rushes her to the hospital in Portland.

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

I thought that it was gonna happen, she was gonna die on that car ride.

HOST VO

By the time they reach the hospital, Kamber is barely conscious.

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

I’m thinking that my little girl is so sick and nobody can tell me what’s wrong with her.  The hope was that I’m getting her to a children’s hospital and they’re gonna be able to fix her.  They’re gonna know what to do.

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On call is pediatric specialist, Doctor Meghan Kinealy.

MEGHAN KINEALY VO/OC

In a patient Kamber’s size when you have that many diarrhea stools in a 24 hour period, you get pretty dehydrated.

HOST VO

But dehydration isn’t Kamber’s only problem.  In the ER the doctor’s place Kamber on a set of scales to check her weight.  

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

I look down and it reads 19.5 and my heart sank.  She was 30 pounds the day before her symptoms started.  I had no idea that she had lost a third of her body weight.

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HOST VO

Unless Doctor Kinealy and her colleagues find out what’s making Kamber so sick, she could die.  Pathologists begin a series of test on Kamber’s stool sample.  But a complete work-up could take two days.  Two days that Kamber might not have.

STEVE HASTINGS VO/OC

I’m just thinking, “How much more can her little body go through without her giving up?”

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HOST VO

24 hours later, the results are back.

MEGHAN KINEALY VO/OC

About half way through my rounds, I got a call from the labs saying that Kamber Hastings’ stool was positive for cryptosporidium.

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

When she tells me this, I immediately wanted to look it up to see what this disgusting thing could be that was invading my little girl.

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HOST VO

Cryptosporidium parvum is a single-celled parasite that wreaks havoc when it gets into the human gut.  The parasite attaches to the lining of the small intestine and prevents the host from absorbing nutrients.  The body’s immune system tries to rid itself of the parasite causing severe diarrhea and vomiting.  But this response can make the situation worse.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

The constant diarrhea pushes nutrients out of the body and that can cause malnutrition or even death.

HOST VO

Healthy adults can often recover from a cryptosporidium infection without drugs.  But for the elderly, the immuno-compromised, and the very young, it can be fatal.  To kill the parasite, Kamber is started on a course of powerful anti-parasitic drugs.  But Kamber isn’t the only one in danger.  Cryptosporidium is highly infectious and doctors are concerned that the entire family might have been exposed to the parasite.  They must track down the source of the infection.  They start by examining the parasite’s life cycle.  Cryptosporidium begins as a free living cyst in water or soil.  The cyst is eaten by a host, often a cow.  Once inside the cow, the cyst multiplies in the intestines.  When the cysts are passed back into the environment with the cow’s feces, the life cycle repeats.

DAN RISKIN OC

Once in the environment, the parasite’s protective coating allows it to survive up to six months.  That allows it to lie in wait until conditions are perfect for an attack.

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HOST VO

The most common way for cryptosporidium to infect a human is through contaminated water.  Up to 95 percent of swimming pools, lakes and ponds contain traces of the parasite.  Doctor Kinealy suspects that is how the parasite infected Kamber.

MEGHAN KINEALY VO/OC

I notified the public health department of their county who would test the waters that she had been exposed to.

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HOST VO

Just hours after the diagnosis, Jenni gets a call from the county health department.  

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

They explained to me that they needed to back track and get the source of this immediately.

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HOST VO

When health officials arrive at the Hastings’ home, they focus their attention on the family’s well. 

JENNI HASTINGS VO

She tells me that she’s gonna need to test our water. 

HOST VO

The Hastings don’t drink from the well, but they do use it for bathing. 

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HOST VO

And when the water is tested, the results are staggering.

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

The county was able to confirm that the water source had been infected with cryptosporidium.

HOST VO

An examination of the well’s structure reveals exactly how the parasite got into the water.

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JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

The casing in the well had cracked which meant there was a ground water contamination to the well water.

HOST VO

Kamber most likely became infected by accidently drinking contaminated well water while playing in her kiddie pool.

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HOST VO

After eight days in the hospital, Kamber is finally parasite free and on the road to recovery.  She is discharged and life slowly returns to normal for the Hastings.

JENNI HASTINGS VO/OC

Although it took a little bit of time for her to get all of her weight back, she is completely normal today.  She’s just back out to being her normal, outgoing little self.

HOST VO

And Steve and Jenni install a new filtration system in their well.  It uses ultraviolet light which kills cryptosporidium.  In the United States, cryptosporidium infects up to 8,000 people every year.  In less developed parts of the world, the rate of infection is much higher.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

Cryptosporidium is found in fresh water all over the world.  It can live in back yards in swimming pools, even in tap water.  And when it gets in the water system, it can reach a huge number of hosts at once.

HOST VO

Most people who get infected with cryptosporidium do survive.  The best way to avoid contracting this parasite is to maintain good personal hygiene.  Especially after using the bathroom or coming into contact with soil or fresh water

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HOST VO

Cryptosporidium isn’t the only microscopic parasite that lurks around us.  Others are even deadlier as one California family is about to learn.  

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Fall 2007, Murrieta, California.  Sherry Moore is the mother of three teenagers, Alyssa, Brandon and Trent.  Her husband Matt works as a firefighter.  As a family, they like to spend time together.

SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

We like having a family friendly atmosphere just all the kids here and swimming and goofing off and it’s kind of crazy but it’s, it’s fun.

ALYSSA MOORE VO/OC

My parents really like strive to make this a fun, kid-friendly house, you know.

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It’s early November, Sherry is at home with the kids.  Matt is finishing up at the station after a day putting out a wildfire.  She doesn’t know it but he’s already locked in a battle with a deadly enemy.

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SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

He just came home on November 14th and he was sick.  He was a little sicker than just a regular cold.  

ALYSSA MOORE VO/OC

He just looked like he had like the flu and he was just kind of like out of it and he was throwing up a lot.  

HOST VO

But for Sherri and her family, Matt’s flu-like symptoms don’t come as a surprise.  Matt has an auto-immune condition that occasionally causes flus and colds.  The episodes always pass quickly and Matt and Sherry are confident that this will be no different.

SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

He just took regular cold medicine and he stayed home and rested.  We thought he was fine and that it would just pass you know, in a few days.

HOST VO

But after five days in bed, Matt’s symptoms have not improved.  In fact, they’ve gotten worse.

SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

He just was complaining that his head hurt so bad.  He said it didn’t feel like a migraine, it felt worse than a migraine.  It was just scary because he never complained of headaches that bad, ever.  I was afraid that he was having an aneurism.

HOST VO

Concerned for her husband’s health, Sherry rushes Matt to the local ER.

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HOST VO

By the time they arrive, it’s clear that Matt is seriously ill, but with what?

SHERRY MOORE OC

I was thinking, “Please do whatever you can to find out what’s wrong with him.”  

HOST VO

The doctors run a battery of tests and quickly arrive at a diagnosis.

SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

About an hour and a half later, they figured out that he had meningitis.

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HOST VO

Meningitis is an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord.  It’s usually triggered by an infection of some kind such as a virus or a bacteria and often clears up on its own.  The doctors give Matt pain killers and Sherry takes him home.

SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

They figured he should be better in five or six days.  We kept thinking it’s just gonna pass.

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HOST VO

But two weeks later, Matt is still no better.  Sherry and Matt head back to the ER.

SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

It was awful because he was feeling so sick.  I was begging pretty much for a nurse or a doctor to come and look at him because he wasn’t right.

HOST VO

This time, the doctors decide to test Matt’s spinal fluid.  The results are terrifying.  The spinal fluid pressure is six times higher than normal indicating that the lining of the brain is now severely inflamed.  The only way to relieve the pressure is to drill a hole in his skull.

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SHERRY MORRE VO/OC

They realize that he was so close to death at that point.  It was really scary.

HOST VO

The procedure works and the pressure subsides, but the agonizing headaches remain.  

SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

I don’t know what’s wrong, but I know something’s wrong and I don’t know medicine but I know my husband.

HOST VO

If doctors can’t figure out what’s causing Matt’s brain to swell, he could die.

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HOST VO

And now, inside the monster.  Which of the following groups is at increased risk of getting infected with cryptosporidium?  Is it A, children who attend daycare centers?  B, hikers who drink unfiltered water?  C, international travelers?  Or D, all of the above?

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HOST VO

The group that is at increased risk of getting infected with cryptosporidium is D, all of the above.

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HOST VO

Firefighter Matt Moore is suffering from a mysterious brain disease that is causing the lining of his brain to swell resulting in agonizing headaches.

SHERRY MOORE OC/VO

I don’t know what’s wrong but I know something’s wrong and I don’t know medicine, but I know my husband.

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HOST VO

In a desperate attempt to control the swelling, his doctors administer a cocktail of powerful antibiotics, but the drugs don’t help and Sherry can tell her husband is getting worse by the minute.

SHERRY MOORE OC/VO

He wasn’t getting any better and it didn’t make sense.  I had no idea what it could be.  I, I just knew in my heart it wasn’t meningitis.

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HOST VO

When Matt’s fellow firefighter, Mike Samuels comes to visit, he is stunned by what he sees.  Matt can no longer walk, talk or even eat.

MIKE SAMUELS VO/OC

He probably lost 30 pounds and he was having difficulty keeping the food in his mouth.  It was just hard to watch.  I’m sorry.

SHERRY MOORE OC/VO

I was very frustrated because we didn’t know what’s wrong with him.  Nobody knew what was going on.

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HOST VO

Determined to find the root of the problem, doctors scan Matt’s brain for abnormalities.  The results show areas of damaged tissue, or lesions inside his brain.

SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

They described it to me as kind of like a little bit of a scarring on the brain.

HOST VO

In charge of Matt’s case is Doctor Jayant Menon.  For Doctor Menon, the lesions suggest one of two possibilities.

JAYANT MENON VO/OC

The biggest thinking you, you worry about is that if there is a, a tumor growing in that area or an, an infectious process going on.

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HOST VO

Only a biopsy will reveal the truth.

MIKE SAMUELS VO/OC

They told us that they were gonna be able to perform a biopsy and hopefully get some decision on what was causing his illness.

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HOST VO

Four weeks after being admitted to the hospital, Matt is finally wheeled into surgery.  His friends and family can only wait in hope for the best.

SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

We were all anxious for some type of diagnosis.

HOST VO

In the OR, Doctor Menon opens up Matt’s skull and examines the lesion.  But what he sees is perplexing. 

JAYANT MENON VO/OC

Matt’s brain didn’t look normal at all.  It didn’t look like any typical infection.

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HOST VO

The doctors report their findings to Sherry and Matt’s friend, Mike.

MIKE SAMUELS VO/OC

They had told us that a large portion of the frontal lobe of Matt’s brain had, had died and that there was significant damage to that part of his brain.

HOST VO

The surgeons send a sample of the dead tissue to the lab to be analyzed.  Ten days later, the lab results are finally back.

JAYANT MENON VO/OC

The pathologic diagnosis from the biopsy came back showing that Matt had a parasite growing in, in his brain.

HOST VO

Doctor Menon breaks the news to Matt’s wife.

SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

Doctor Menon pulled me aside and told me that they had confirmed that it was 98 percent fatal.

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HOST VO

Firefighter Matt Moore is in the hospital battling for his life.  His doctors have discovered that a large section of his brain has been destroyed by a deadly parasite.  Leaving Matt with a two percent chance of survival.

JAYANT MENON VO/OC

The pathologic diagnosis from the biopsy came back showing that Matt had a parasite growing in, in his brain.  The biopsy revealed that he had balamuthia mandrillaris.

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HOST VO

Balamuthia mandrillaris is a microscopic amoeba with a ravenous appetite.  Inside the brain balamuthia mandrillaris feeds on brain tissue, nourished by the nutrient rich tissue, it grows and reproduces by dividing over and over again.  As it proliferates, immune cells and other molecules rush in to fight the infection causing the brain to swell.

DAN RISKIN OC

That can cause seizures.  That can cause coma.  That can even cause death.

HOST VO

But how did the amoeba get inside Matt’s brain?  The answer lies in the parasite’s life cycle.

DAN RISKIN OC

Balamuthia mandrillaris is a free living amoeba.  That means it doesn’t need a host to survive.

HOST VO

Encased in a protective coat, balamuthia travels through the air attached to dust particles.  Most of the amoebas are blocked by our body’s natural defenses, but in rare cases, the parasite evades the immune system and travels through the body’s airways to the lungs.  There it enters the blood stream and travels to the brain.

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HOST VO

Mike helps the doctors retrace Matt’s activities in the weeks leading up to the illness.

MIKE SAMUELS VO/OC

We went backwards from when the amoeba would have taken hold and symptoms were present and it was right at the time where Matt was involved in the wild land fires during the Santa Ana winds.

HOST VO

When wildfires broke out in Southern California in the fall of 2007, Matt and his colleagues fought to keep the flames at bay.  For three weeks, strong seasonal winds kicked up huge quantities of ash, dirt and dust.  And along with it, microscopic amoeba.  Doctors think that this is when Matt must have inhaled the amoeba.

MIKE SAMUELS VO/OC

We face a lot of dangers every day we come to work, but nobody ever imagines they’re gonna inhale a single cell amoeba and have it invade their brain.

HOST VO

Why was Matt the only firefighter to get sick?

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HOST VO

The answer appears to lie in Matt’s auto-immune condition that makes him more susceptible to infection.

JAYANT MENON VO/OC

He doesn’t have the cells in his bones that make antibodies.  So this parasite, it was able to, to grow and proliferate in his body.

HOST VO

Out of about a hundred or so reported victims of this parasite, only a handful have survived.  But Sherry refuses to give up hope.

SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

I was relieved that they finally had a diagnosis and now it was time to just cure him.  I don’t think that I really understood how bad it was and I just knew my husband just was fighting and fighting all the time for his life.

HOST VO

Matt’s doctors begin flooding his system with the powerful antibiotic cocktail the few known survivors received.  

JAYANT MENON VO/OC

Even though we were literally bathing him in antibiotics, he just kept getting worse and worse.

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HOST VO

Four weeks later, Matt is on life support.

SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

He looked old. And here you have this healthy, strong man and now he looked like he was about 80.

HOST VO

March 10, 2008, 117 days since Matt first fell ill, the Moore family makes the most difficult decision they’ve ever faced.

SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

As a family we sat down and the kids and I and his parents and his brother and we decided that you know, if he’s gonna make it,  then he needed to make it the way he wanted to make it and that was off life support.

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HOST VO

That day Matt Moore loses his battle against the balamuthia amoeba.  He is surrounded by his family and fellow firefighters when he takes his last breath.  He is 43 years old.  Today the Murrieta fire department maintains a memorial to their fallen colleague.

SHERRY MOORE VO

To have our faith and our family, our friends and the fire department has just been the only way we’ve been able to make it through this.

MIKE SAMUELS VO/OC

He’s not gone, his legacy lives and I hope that, you know, somewhere in the world somebody sees this, we can save a life.

HOST VO

Doctors stress that early diagnosis gives patients their best chance for survival.

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HOST VO

Balamuthia mandrillaris lives in the soil in temperate regions around the world.  But cases of human infection are extremely rare. 

DAN RISKIN OC

Since the early 1990’s only a hundred people worldwide have been diagnosed with this parasite and most of the victims were either elderly or immuno-compromised.

HOST VO

Scientists believe that healthy adults can make antibodies against balamuthia but when it gets inside a host that is incapable of fighting back, it’s a killer.  Balamuthia isn’t the only deadly parasite that lurks in the soil.  As one school girl in Oregon is about to discover.

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HOST VO

2003.  14 year old Keysha Kendall lives with her family in rural Canby, Oregon.

KEYSHA KENDALL VO/OC

We live on 18 acres of land.  It’s pretty far out in the country.  My home life is really good.  I have my mom and my dad.  My older sister lives with me, she’s four years older.

HOST VO

Keysha shares a special bond with her mom, Amy.

KEYSHA KENDALL VO/OC

I love spending time with my mom.  We do a lot of things together, anywhere from movies to just talking.

AMY KENDALL VO

We listen to music together, we garden.

KEYSHA KENDALL OC

Basically anything.

AMY KENDALL OC

She’s a fabulous girl.

HOST VO

But the Kendall’s have no idea that something is about to shatter their world.

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HOST VO

It’s early May and Keysha is just waking up.

KEYSHA KENDALL VO/OC

I wake up, you know the light’s on.  I get dressed.  Everything’s bright and clear and then when I was standing at my door, I just noticed that something was off.  I had really bad depth perception.

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HOST VO

Keysha’s depth perception is so bad that she almost trips down the stairs.

KEYSHA KENDALL VO/OC

They all kind of blended together.  Things that were close seemed farther, visa-versa.  I have never experienced it before in my life.

HOST VO

As the day goes on, the problem doesn’t go away.

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HOST VO

But Keysha decides not to tell her mom.

KEYSHA KENDALL VO/OC

And I had 20/20 vision so I just figured that it would go away and everything would be fine again, which is probably why I didn’t tell my mom at first.

HOST VO

The decision not to speak up is one that she will regret for the rest of her life.

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HOST VO

High school student Keysha Kendall has been having trouble with her eyesight.

KEYSHA KENDALL VO/OC

I had really bad depth perception.  Things that were close seemed farther, visa-versa.

HOST VO

But she has kept the problem to herself and decided not to visit the eye doctor.

KEYSHA KENDALL VO/OC

I figured that it would go away and everything would be fine again.

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HOST VO

But four weeks after the problem began Keysha notices that her left eye looks different.  

KEYSHA KENDALL VO/OC

After about a month, I did notice that when I stared at myself, it would kind of droop a little.  Something that wasn’t noticeable if you were just talking to me.

HOST VO

For the first time, Keysha begins to suspect that she might have a more serious problem.

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HOST VO

Two weeks later, the Kendall’s are celebrating Keysha’s sister’s birthday.

KEYSHA KENDALL VO/OC

We were just eating and I was talking to my mom and she noticed that my left eye wasn’t following with my right eye.

AMY KENDALL VO/OC

I’m looking back and forth from each eye and one of them is full of life and the left eye is void.  It’s not tracking.  I ask her if she’s seeing out of it and she’s saying, “I’m not seeing a lot out of it.  No, I can’t see mom.”  And that’s the moment I panicked.

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HOST VO

Amy rushes her daughter to the eye doctor.

KEYSHA KENDALL VO

I remember sitting in the chair and my mom telling my doctor that I couldn’t see in my left eye.  

AMY KENDALL VO/OC

He said, “Okay, let’s take a look.”  And he looked into her right eye and said, “Well that one looks good.”  And then he looked into her left eye and he looked again into her left eye and that’s when he put his equipment down and he said, “I, I’m gonna go make a phone call.  I’ll be right back.”

HOST VO

When the doctor returns he tells that he’s made an emergency appointment at Casey Eye Institute in Portland.

KEYSHA KENDALL VO/OC

I guess I was in shock.  The only thing that I knew was we’re going up to see some doctors that you know, would fix my eye and I’d be fine again.

HOST VO

But Amy is not so confident.

AMY KENDALL VO/OC

I was so worried and concerned.  We couldn’t in my opinion get there fast enough.

HOST VO

When they arrive, ophthalmologist Doctor Jonathan Yoken is waiting for them.

JONATHAN YOKEN VO

When I look at Keysha, her right eye appears to be normal, but the left eye has this unusual white pupil.

HOST VO

When he examines Keysha’s left eye, Doctor Yoken is perplexed by what he finds.

JONATHAN YOKEN VO/OC

I can see that in fact her retina is detached.

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HOST VO

The retina is the part of the eye that sends visual images to the brain.  It is located at the back of the eye.  If it becomes detached it can cause blindness.

JONATHAN YOKEN VO

I’m thinking that it’s very unusual for a young child to have a sudden retinal detachment.

HOST VO

When he takes a closer look, he sees something even more bizarre.

JONATHAN YOKEN VO/OC

I can see multiple cyst like structures of which one of them actually seems to be moving a little bit on its own.

HOST VO

A cyst is a fluid filled sack.  It can be caused by an infection, a birth defect or even a tumor.  But Doctor Yoken has never seen a cyst that moves.

JONATHAN YOKEN VO/OC

I, I, I almost dropped the lens that I was using to examine her eye at that point.  I think most ophthalmologists would tell you that they’ve never seen anything like that in their entire career.

AMY KENDALL VO/OC

I didn’t know how to react.  Something’s moving in your daughter’s eye.  What do you say to that?

KEYSHA KENDALL VO/OC

I was pretty creeped out and kind of grossed out that there was something in me.

HOST VO

Something is alive inside Keysha’s eye.  And whatever it is, it’s destroying her vision.

AMY KENDALL VO

That’s when he said, she needed to have her eye operated on as soon as possible.

KEYSHA KENDALL OC/VO

I didn’t really know what was going on or why he would suggest that.  I guess I was in shock.

AMY KENDALL VO/OC

I, I just wanted to take my baby and go home.  I think that was the hardest point.  I just broke down and cried.

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HOST VO

Doctor Jonathan Yoken has just detected a mysterious cluster of cysts inside Keysha Kendall’s left eye.  They have already damaged her retina and if the situation gets any worse, he may have to remove her entire eye.

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HOST VO

Keysha is immediately prepped for surgery.

KEYSHA KENDALL OC/VO

I was nervous and a little afraid of, you know, maybe they wouldn’t be able to get everything out.

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HOST VO

In the OR, Doctor Yoken makes his first incision into Keysha’s left eye.

JONATHAN YOKEN VO

When I open up the eye, there are multiple, may 20 to 30 cyst-like structures encased in the vitreous.

HOST VO

The vitreous is a jelly-like substance in the eye that separates the lens from the retina.  Keysha’s is filled with cysts.  Doctor Yoken begins extracting them one by one.

JONATHAN YOKEN VO/OC

We removed approximately 28 cyst-like structures that were moving a little bit on their own.  One had a worm-like structure budding from it.

HOST VO

As he removes each cyst, Doctor Yoken hands it off to a team of pathologists.

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HOST VO

And when they examine the cysts under a microscope, they make a terrifying discovery.

JONATHAN YOKEN VO

After examining the organisms that we’ve removed from Keysha’s eye, it appears it’s a tapeworm called taenia crassiceps.

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HOST VO

Taenia crassiceps is a rare but vicious tape worm.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

The adult tapeworm can live inside a host for years without even being detected, but as larvae, they can wreak havoc.

HOST VO

If the larvae get inside the human eye, they feast on the jelly-like fluid that fills the eye and chew tiny holes in the retina.  The retina eventually detaches, causing blindness.

KEYSHA KENDALL VO/OC

It’s kind of a shock to find out that there was a parasite that was inside my eye.  It was kind of unreal.

AMY KENDALL VO/OC

All I wanted to do was deny, deny.  This is not happening.  I didn’t know what we were facing.

HOST VO

Taenia crassiceps is extremely rare in humans.  So how did it end up inside Keysha?  The answer lies in the parasite’s life cycle.

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HOST VO

Taenia crassiceps begins its life in the intestines of a wild canine, like a coyote.  Inside the coyote, the tapeworm reproduces.  Its eggs are passed with the coyote’s feces and eaten by a rat.  When the rat is eaten by an uninfected coyote, the life cycle is repeated.  When the doctors interview Amy, she tells them that coyotes often roam across their property.

AMY KENDALL VO/OC

What they finally concluded is that we were probably out gardening and came in for lunch and the parasite was on her hands.

HOST VO

Doctors think that if Keysha failed to wash her hands after working in soil contaminated with the tapeworm, she may have inadvertently ingested the larvae at lunch.

AMY KENDALL VO/OC

It got into her stomach and in turn, into her bloodstream and lodged in the eye.

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HOST VO

In the recovery room Doctor Yoken shares the results of the surgery with Keysha and Amy.

JONATHAN YOKEN VO/OC

The good news is we were able to remove all the organisms from Keysha’s eye.  Unfortunately, the retina’s too badly damaged to repair.  She will not have any usable vision in the eye.

KEYSHA KENDALL VO/OC

I think I was just shocked to hear that and then I kind of started thinking if I would be able to cope with it and I guess have a normal life.

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HOST VO

Keysha’s battle with the parasite has forever changed her life.  In ways she never imagined.

KEYSHA KENDALL OC/VO

I’m very adamant on if anything’s wrong, I see a doctor and I’m just more ambitious to do things and it’s actually made me a stronger person.

HOST VO

Taenia crassiceps is found throughput Canada and the northern United States.  To avoid contracting this parasite, people living in areas populated by coyotes, wolves, and foxes, should avoid handling soil that may be contaminated with animal feces and always wash their hands thoroughly after outdoor recreation.

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DAN RISKIN VO/OC

Taenia crassiceps has an ingenious trait that helps ensure its survival.  Its eggs are covered with shells that allow them to survive for months even outside a host.

HOST VO

Everywhere on the planet, parasites are on the hunt looking for hosts to infect.  Lurking all around us until it’s time to strike.

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HOST VO

For more disgusting parasites and tips on how to avoid them, visit our website animalplanet.com/monstersinsideme.

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Back in the ICU Kamber is still fighting for her life.

JENNI HASINGS VO/OC

They told me at that point that she should feel better within the first dose, but that didn’t happen and that was really scary.  Eventually after the last dose of the medication, about 24 hours later, she perked up.

STEVE HASTINGS VO/OC

I never lost hope that she was gonna be okay.  The, the doctors were the best.

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HOST VO

Lesions can be caused by injury, infection or even birth defects.  Only a biopsy will identify the nature of this lesion.  But its location deep in the brain stem makes it impossible to operate without causing brain damage or death.  For now, all Sherry and the doctors can do is watch and wait.

SHERRY MOORE OC

They just were monitoring the lesions to make sure that they didn’t grow or change or have any types of inconsistencies.

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HOST VO

But two weeks later, a further scan reveals that the lesions have begun to grow and the headaches have gotten even worse.

SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

He was jumping off the bed and pulling out IVs and just screaming about his head he was in so much pain because his, his head hurt so bad.

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HOST VO

Matt is rushed to the University of California Hospital in San Diego.

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But the doctors cannot perform the surgery without damaging Matt’s brain.  So he is kept in the hospital for further observation.

JAYANT MENON VO/OC

With a lesion like this, it’s, it’s very frustrating because there is little to nothing to do for a neurosurgeon.  We have to wait until we can get to a place that’s accessible because the risk of doing a, a biopsy in his brain stem would just be too great.

MIKE SAMUELS OC/VO

I was starting at that point for the first time to wonder if he was gonna be okay.

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HOST VO

But a new MRI on Matt’s brain seems to offer a glimmer of hope.  A new lesion has appeared close to the surface of the brain and this time the doctors are hopeful that they can perform a biopsy without putting Matt at risk.

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ALYSSA MOORE OC

It’s, it’s easier knowing that he’s, he’s not he’s not hurting anymore.  It’s just a bummer not to have him there to not just for me, but for my brothers and my mom.  I mean he’s, he’s not gonna be there when I go to college or when I graduate college.

HOST VO

As the terrible news spreads, firefighters across Southern California gather to salute their fallen comrade.  Among them is Matt’s friend Mike Ramos.

MIKE RAMOS OC/VO

We had a special ceremony right after Mike passed.  It was down in San Diego.  I would say just about every overpass between Murrieta and San Diego was covered with fire apparatus and they were standing saluting Matt as, as we drove by with his body.

SHERRY MOORE VO/OC

You can’t even, can’t even understand how honoring it is and how humbling it is to see all these fire departments organized and, organize this to honor my husband.

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KEYSHA KENDALL OC/VO

I did rub my eyes a few times.  I tried, you know, putting, applying pressure, which probably wasn’t the smartest thing.  I was trying everything because I thought it would maybe come back and it was just, you know, from sleeping sometimes your eyes go a little black in the morning.

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HOST VO

One afternoon at band practice, her eyesight suddenly gets even worse.

KEYSHA KENDALL VO/OC

Looking at the music was fairly difficult.  The only thing that I could detect was lights and shadows.  It was hard to see clearly.  It was hard to play along so I did a lot of, I guess fake playing you could call it.

HOST VO

Keysha makes it through practice, but she is still reluctant to voice her concerns about her eyesight.

KEYSHA KENDALL VO/OC

I felt embarrassed to mention anything just because it wasn’t normal and at that age, you really try to fit in and be normal.

HOST VO

But she can’t hide her secret forever.

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In the waiting area, her mother Amy is also terrified.

AMY KENDALL VO/OC

I am trying to stay calm.  Inside I am panicking beyond words.  At this point I didn’t want to know any more about it.  I just wanted it out of her.

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DAN RISKIN OC

As the larvae move through the body, they cause inflammation and tissue damage, but it’s when they reach the eye that they really start to cause problems.

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AMY KENDALL VO/OC

One of our favorite past times was going out at night with a large flashlight and spotlighting the coyotes.  We heard them.  They were there all year round.  We knew they were roaming and all over the property.  It was a wooded property.  So we were very aware that they were there.  We were not aware of the dangers of what they carry.

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